Heritage
by KnoKnameKnown
Summary: Enemies old and new unite with a devious scheme that could change everything... and the X-Men won't even see it coming.


**Disclaimer: I own nothing, and am making no money. No suing please, all credit etc goes to the original owners/creators. **

**Second disclaimer: This story is part of a series that follows on from my other story 'Enter X-Factor' so although it (hopefully) stands alone there will be references that may not make sense unless you have read that first. This story is also light on the actual team so bear that in mind! Reviews are of course welcome, even negative ones (although those won't be needed.) Enjoy!**

**Chapter One: Something Old, Something New**

_European Superhuman Penitentiary, Ireland_

"Why they decided to keep these arseholes here I'll never know." Peter Wisdom looked around the devastation with a sceptical eye. The rubble around him had once been the most secure jail in Europe, designed specifically to contain and imprison criminals with superhuman powers, most of them being mutants... 'Once' being the operative word. Now anyone could wander in and out with impunity, powers or no powers. Almost the entire western wall had been smashed into rubble, the watch towers that had been set up at regular intervals were so much scrap metal and even the vaunted energy shields that had been said to be strong enough to repulse anything short of a nuclear warhead had proven useless. He kicked at a burnt, twisted chunk of titanium that had once housed one of the shield generators- fat lot of good that had done. "I mean you want to keep them locked up, so you send them to _Ireland_? It's like entrusting a chocolate bar to a Fat Club..."

"Very funny," one of his companions said.

"Or a crate of beer to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting."

"You've made your point, Wisdom."

"Or a rare diamond to a kleptomaniac."

"Yes, _alright_, Wisdom, you can shut up now."

"Or a-"

"Pete, shut up or you spend the rest of your life thinking you're a Labrador," the third member of the trio cut in.

"Nice try Mo, but only telepaths can pull that kind of stunt. There's no way you could do it." Wisdom did not sound as confident as the words would imply. Then again, no man alive would sound completely in control under the fiery gaze his companion was turning on him.

"You absolutely sure about that?" she challenged him. Wisdom knew when he was beaten, but he did not concede the point gracefully.

"I was just making a point," he protested.

"Consider it made," the other member of the group said. In his late forties, Sean Cassidy was the oldest of the trio by almost twenty years and had an undeniable authority. His red hair was cut short, emphasising his military bearing. He had distinct Irish accent in contrast to Wisdom's East-London drawl, and had obviously not appreciated the dig at his countrymen.

"If the pair of you are quite done posturing," Maureen Raven said, growing annoyed of the two alpha-male types jockeying for position. They had been at it ever since they had met a few hours ago and been forced to team up. Like Sean, Maureen, or Mo as she preferred to be known, was a red-haired Irish native, but the similarities were superficial; her hair was much deeper and richer than Sean's, and her Belfast roots made her accent noticeably different. The two men both adopted offended expressions but shut their mouths. Wisdom went ahead of the group and examined a particularly large pile of rubble. He nudged at one piece of stone with his foot but it didn't so much as wobble; it must have been several feet thick and weighed more than he did- and he did not like to think what kind of power it would take to smash through a wall of this stuff like it was rice-paper.

"Whoever it was, they did a number on this place," he commented. The other two also began to wander across the wreckage-strewn yard, examining the devastation. Sean looked at the wall of what had been a cell block. One cell in particular had been targeted and the wall totally demolished, but the entire building had taken severe damage.

Wisdom was pacing up and down the wall, apparently looking for something in particular. He paused at a point that seemed the same as any other before using his hands to approximate some distances, He nodded to himself, apparently satisfied.

"Looks like this was where the main attraction made its entry," he muttered to himself. He raised his voice and called out to the others. "Mo, get over here a second will you? I think this is the bit you've been looking for."

Mo wandered across and joined him. As far as she could tell, the choice was entirely arbitrary, but Wisdom had much more experience than she did when it came to explosives and destroyed buildings and she was more than willing to bow to his superior knowledge. Sean joined them, and although it clearly irked him to have to ask questions of Wisdom his curiosity got the better of him.

"What's she doing?" He enquired, watching Mo wave her hands over the selected area and close her eyes in some kind of trance.

"She's clairsentient," Wisdom explained. "It's a kind of telepathy I think... she can read the aura of a person, or an object, see into its past somehow. Hopefully she can tell us what the hell happened here."

Mo let out a gasp and both men looked at her in surprise. Her powers had just made the connection but it had proven much stronger than she had anticipated and she was nearly overpowered by the sensations and feelings-

_-The earth trembled, the ground shaking so hard it was hard to stay upright-_

_-Guards rushing back and forth in confusion, weapons passed around, orders being yelled-_

_-The wall visibly trembling under the repeated impact of titanic forces, the watchtowers on top shaking as though in the grip of a gigantic, enraged child-_

_-Cracks appearing in the wall, and widening-_

_-"Come on lads, keep it together now. We're the best of the best, it'll take more than some bunch of terrorists to get the better of INTERPOL's best!"-_

_-A massive section of wall toppling inwards, a spider's-web of cracks shooting along the wall-_

_-A gigantic... shape, too fast to be fully comprehended, being pummelled by firearms and energy weapons alike, not even pausing-_

_-A hunched figure swinging arms like tree-trunks, throwing dozens of men aside with each blow, then pausing only to punch the ground so hard the impact threw the few remaining men off their feet-_

"_Hold it right there Marko-" Then a massive shape looming over the brave, doomed officer, features hidden in the shadows of the domed helmet, a fist grabbing the man by the head and throwing him at a group of guards sent to try and reinforce the position-_

_-The helmet being lowered as the giant began to run at the wall, building up speed with every footstep, slamming into the wall headfirst- cracks beginning to form- a crackle as the forcefield gave way under the strain-_

_-The man slamming fists into the wall, green shoots suddenly beginning to form in the cracks, growing with uncanny speed, widening and loosening the cracks, a few more blows enough to bring the entire wall down, figures jumping down and running out, heading to the toppled wall, some pausing to kick and beat the fallen guards-_

_-The giant standing and waiting as a figure emerged from the shattered wall. A man that would be tall in any company than the beast awaiting him, lean to the point of skinny but with an aura of power none the less- hair tangled and unkempt, the stubble of a week unshaven, but icy blue eyes cold, arrogant and commanding- "You've done me a great service today, Marko, and Thomas Cassidy does not forget a favour he owes."- The two of them making their way back through the carnage Marko forged and heading out into the night...-_

Mo wobbled as her legs gave way beneath her and her lungs rasped as she tried to draw in breath. Wisdom was quick enough to step in and catch her as she swooned, cradling her gently and easing her to the floor. Her eyes were vacant and her breath still ragged but she was still conscious.

"Is she going to be alright?" Sean asked.

"No idea. I've never seen her take it this hard before," Wisdom said shortly, before turning his attention to the redhead. "Mo? Mo, come on, snap out of it! You going to faint cause of a little thing like that?"

"Are you sure you're-" Sean began, not sure that Wisdom's confrontational approach was exactly the best for this kind of situation, but the Englishman shoved a finger in Sean's face without even looking aside.

"Belt up, Cassidy, I know what I'm doing," he snapped. "Come on Mo- pull through it... unless you're really not up to active service again after all..."

Mo's attempt at a glare was not very convincing- her mouth was still slack and her eyes too clouded to display much venom, but she was at least focussed again. She glowered at Wisdom but he just smiled, glad she had made it through, although he did manage to turn it into a more characteristic smirk as her eyesight returned to full clarity- it would not do for the cynical, jaded Pete W. Wisdom, Esq., to display a soft side.

"Come on Raven, get off that shapely arse and give us something useful."

"Big guy..." Mo was still very weak. "Helmet... nothing could slow him down... nothing even touched him..."

Wisdom and Sean shared a worried look. A big man with a helmet and apparent invulnerability... they could think of only one person who fitted that description, and even contemplating the name was extremely bad news. Any stuttering sparks of hope they nurtured were soon snuffed out by the clairsentient's next words. "Name was... Mark? ... No, Marko. Name was Marko."

"Unstoppable giant with a helmet, called Marko. You sure of that?" Wisdom asked. He doubted Mo was mistaken, she had never let him down before, but if ever there was a time he wanted her to be fallible after all, this was it.

"I'm sure," Mo confirmed. The two men looked at each other in dismay, mutual antagonism discarded in the face of a threat far more massive- in every sense.

"The Juggernaut," Sean said eventually. "We're dealing with the Juggernaut."

"What do you mean 'we,' Paleface?" Wisdom quipped, but his heart was clearly not in it. "Christ almighty, as though that bastard Cassidy wasn't bad enough- no offence, mate-"

"None taken," Sean said.

"-now we've got the goddamn Juggernaut running loose. I'm going to have to pull a few strings here, you got anyone else you can call in?"

Sean was looking thoughtful. He shared more than just a surname with the escaped prisoner, theirs was a blood-feud in every single sense. This case had just got deeply personal, and he had no doubt that his cousin would see it the same way... and that meant it was not just Sean who had a stake in the case. His family was in danger too. "There is someone," he said slowly. "I just hope she listens to me for once..."

_Dublin Airport, two weeks later_

Maeve Rourke was not a happy woman, but that was okay- Teresa Cassidy, the woman beneath the disguise, was not happy either. She had only just recovered from what had to be the most traumatic and bizarre year of her life- and as the daughter of a mutant secret agent, many of her twenty-three years had been... unusual ones. Teresa had been- and she supposed, still was- a member of X-Factor Investigations, the world's pre-eminent mutant detective firm. Admittedly there was not a lot of competition for that role, and after what had happened to them all recently she could not see new recruits lining up at job interviews. Things had started only normally abnormal, in that they were investigating the disappearance of a creepy girl with precognitive powers- strange to most, to X-Factor, just another job. Then of course things had turned really strange; one of their members had apparently killed a witness, betrayed his colleagues to a criminal mastermind and ended up literally in bed with the enemy. Of course it had then turned out that said mastermind was a mutant himself and had framed and brainwashed the supposed traitor. After that they had found themselves forcibly recruited by SHIELD, the most powerful peacekeeping force on the planet and when they finally confronted the gangster responsible for the crimes, they had ended up fighting alongside several of the infamous X-Men.

Her brain was still sore from trying to keep track of events, but it had nothing on her heart, which in the weeks since the whole affair had concluded had varied between broken, torn and ragged. In the course of the mission, James Maddox, the man she strongly suspected she had fallen in love with, had come into contact with some kind of clone. The contact had merged them both and now it seemed he was literally no longer the man she had fallen for. Before she could even begin to try and deal with the trauma, she had received a call from her father, Sean Cassidy, imploring her to return to her native Ireland on 'family business'... but her family was a business she'd long since hoped to escape.

It was strange in a way. Terry had always been fiercely patriotic; her youth had been spent travelling the world, forced on the move by forces and influences she had not understood and never controlled, and hadn't been back to Ireland in nearly ten years, but in her heart her love of her country had never even flickered. She supposed the old adage was true: you could take the girl out of Ireland, but never take Ireland out of the girl. She had fled her old life in County Mayo and never stopped running, but as fast and far as she could ever run, Ireland had hooks in her heart and now it was time to face the past, face her demons and face the facts: she was going home... for better or for worse.


End file.
